Smell Ya Later, Daycare!

Ok, here it is! It's BIG ANNOUNCEMENT time!!!

TODAY WAS THE DAY I GOT TO GIVE DAYCARE OUR TWO-WEEK NOTICE! That's right - no more sick baby, no more stupid rules, no more nasty daycare staff, no more sniffly noses, no more sick notices, no more stolen binkies, no more $600 a month childcare, no more filthy white socks, no more french fry incidents! We're DONE!

Why this sudden change you may ask? Well, on Monday, Ralph was offered a position with a Wall Street firm in Great Neck, NY that deals in hedge funds. It was a great offer, with a great company, and we would be crazy to turn it down. Ralph's new position will allow me to stop working my 9-to-5 job every day, and to stay home with Jake while I freelance full-time. I am beyond thrilled at the opportunities that lay ahead for our family. We will be putting our house on the market and moving to NY soon. We are actually going to be renovating Ralph's grandfather's house and living there. Jake will be the fifth generation of Ralph's family to live in this house! Very cool!

While Delaware has been the butt of more than a few jokes from me, I do still think I will miss it. I will miss the awesome friends I made (come visit!!!!), I will miss the memories of all the "firsts" that Ralph and I had here. I will miss our cute little townhouse. I will miss tax-free shopping. I will miss Wawa. Most of all, I will miss being so close to all my family in PA. But I am sooo excited and I am happy to share the news with you all. I will keep you posted!!! :)

Worst. Blogger. Ever.

I would like to apologize profusely for my lack of blogging lately, but I promise you there are lots of pictures and a BIG announcement coming soon! :) NO, I am NOT pregnant! Let's just clear that up right off the bat!

I have been busier this past week than I have ever been in my life, so busy in fact, that I had no time to cry about TURNING 30 last friday! Big thanks go out to my girls Lisa and Mary for showing me a great time friday night!!! :)

Also, big thanks to Lisa for being my awesome design "intern" these past few days and nights - I would accomplish NOTHING without her help. We are talking 12 hour days, 4 hours of sleep a night, crazy running around, working myself into the ground (enter sore throat and coughing).

Jake spent thursday night to Monday night at "Camp Grandma" - he and Ruth had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa Valentine, Uncle Danny and Jamie dawg. He got to eat all kinds of yummy things, and even clapped after his taste of CHOCOLATE Carvel cake - mmmmm! I got some time to myself - which was sooo nice! - while Ralph travelled with his parents, aunts and grandparents down to Florida to see Chris play vs. Miami.

Jake is growing tooth #5 (bottom lower left), and will turn 11 months old in a few days! (So how does that work when your birthday is the 30th, but the month only has 28 days???) I need to get his birthday plans in gear!!!

Carvel Ice Cream Cake...

...Is apparently Jake's favorite food on earth. (Not that this should be a surprise to anyone, seeing as Ralph and I refer to Carvel Ice Cream as 'the fifth food group.') Grandma Valentine let Jake try just one tiny sample of vanilla ice cream from her piece of our Carvel Ice Cream Cake tonight and he liked it so much that he grunted and fussed until she fed him darn near the entire vanilla part! Then he got some from Grandpa, and a little more from momma too before he had his fill. It was hilarious! If only I had tried Carvel Ice Cream on Jake when he was 4 months old, maybe he would have realized much earlier that this eating thing ain't so bad afterall!

Valentine's Day

We spent the day inside, without power, huddling down to keep warm with all of the snow and ice, ice, ice outside. We were without power for about 10 hours total on Valentine's Day, but luckily my digital camera had full batteries and I snuck outside for a few shots when the sun came out for a half-hour.



Ruthie had to wear a pair of Jake's pajamas because she was shivering - wish I had a picture of that! We bundled up and took a nap on the couch, Dada got a picture of us:



Jake missed his Valentine's party at daycare, I missed being able to use the televison, the internet, or my computer (I had been planning to work from home). I had these grand plans to send out a Valentine's Day email to my freelance clients (my design company is valentine designs) and wasn't able to do it. :(



Luckily, a lot of the snow and ice was cleared out by the 15th, so I was able to go back to work, and Jake was able to go back to daycare. Ralph, Jake and Ruthie were kind enough to have flowers delivered to me at work, and Jake's classmates gave him his Valentines Cards too, a day late but just as sweet.



Hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day!

Babies in Baskets

We had a fun time this weekend with my friend Jen's daughter Emily. Emily insisted upon squeezing into these tiny little baskets that we store Jake's toys in. If figured if she fits, Jake would fit too. So, here are two babies in baskets! Too cute! (More pics of Emily on my Photo Blog).



Emily is showing Jake the basics of cell phone usage. I think she is explaining how text messages are transmitted over a wireless network here. Kids are so technologically savvy these days! We all were lucky enough to get to wear some of Emily's pretty headbands too - me, Jake, even Ruthie!

Visit the Photo Blog, whydoncha!

Just a little plug for my photo blog, where you can see some juicy tidbits that don't always make it onto the baby blog, such as this pic: Jake's baby size 3 shoes next to Uncle Chris' size 16 mens shoe.



Stay tuned for the launch of my new photography website, kellyvasami.com - coming soon!

Babyproofing

Jake recently returned from visiting with his grandparents in NY while Ralph was up there on business. Upon his return, Jake immediately went to work putting the child-proofing items to the test.

Of course, he makes a bee-line to the one drawer I didn't babyproof. How do they know???



This is my typical view of Jake these days:



Giving this lock a thorough examination. (I highly recommend this lock!)



Since he can't play with the Liquid Plumber, Jake decides to play his new game of slapping his hands down on his legs while screaming and laughing. This game can last for 2-5 minutes at a time. He cracks me up!



The other lock, which I don't like as much (difficult to open when you are in a hurry).